The High Atlas is a lovely region for trekking/climbing – i went 15 years ago with my mate. Not on an organised trip with a firm, but planned it ourselves. We wwnt in April and the weather was great – like meehaja says, below the snow line was a lovely temperature. Toubkal required crampons and axes, and the snow was pretty deep in places. We were not ‘ice climbing’ as such, just a ‘trek in the snow’ 🙂

We got a grain truck – that was an experience in its self, sat ontop of tonnes of grain as the truck winds along the mountain roads – from the taxi rank in Marakesh all the way up to a village called Imlil. Here were hired a guide and donkeys to carry our kit upto the bivvy station at Toubkal. We were up and down Toubkal in a day from this base station – getting up stupid early. We stayed in a bunk house in Imlil for a night on return.

From Imlil we trekked across to Setti-Fatma – took about 3 days i think. There was no need for a guide here, we carried our own kit and followed the map.

Basically we just walked into the villages and were immediately surrounded by kids who would take us to a bunk house (usually a stable). The family would then cook an amazing tajine, served with bread and berber whiskey (not thw whiskey we know). For a few dirham you get fed and watered and kip on the floor. The Berbers were really friendly and helpful.

From Setti-Fatma we splashed out on a taxi to get back to Marakesh, but it was still dirt cheap.

If you are going to go down the Powerline route, just make sure your garage is on the same ring main as the house where the router is. If it is, this is a good product from NETGEAR – XAVNB2001.

If you fancy the Range Extender then look at either the WN3000RP or WN3500RP, again fron NETGEAR. Remember though, that it only extends the signal, it does not boost it. If you are only getting 1 bar in the garage, and you plug the extender into a plug in the garage, it will simply extend that 1 bar. You would be better to plug it into a plug within the house, close to the garage where you get good signal.

Thanks for the comments and posts – unfortunatly it’s not made the decion any easier 😀

I has going to sell the Cotic to fund the other purchase, but will take the hit for a couple of months and run both for the time being and see which one prevails.

For Powerline to work, both the unit plugged in near the router and the additional unit in the room where you want coverage, need to be on the same ring main. It shouldnt matter if upstairs and downstairs go through the same consumer unit – just ensure they are on the same ring main (i’m no sparky so dont know how you can tell that).

I would go for the NETGEAR XAVNB2001 – not only will it provide you an additional ethernet port upstairs, but it will also extend the range of your wi-fi, eleminating dead spots.

had mine a couple of months – bloody love it!

100mm Rebas – 2nd hand (£180)
Hope hubs/Crest rims – 2nd hand (£180)
Reverb – new 😀
Was running 1 x 10, but recently changed to 2 x 10 XT (New chainset, chain, cassette off Merlin), but sourced the rear mech and shifters 2nd hand. 2nd hand front mech has had to cut the redundent bottom pull arm off for tyre clearence.
Specialized Purgatory tyres f and r – brill alround.
70mm Superstar stem
Easton Vice 711 bars
Mud was an additional extra!

Hi thered – first of all, do you have cable or adsl? This Is a cable router. If you are adsl, look at the DGNDxxxx routers. DGND3700 is good for adsl.

The new N standard is faster and you should get better distance and throughput than your old G router.

Look at going Dual band (2.4 and 5 ghz frequency) and then put some devices you have on 2.4 and others at 5ghz (2.4ghz is very congested).

Power line is great to extend your network upstairs but it won’t be wireless and you’ll need to make sure upstairs is on the same ring main.

Have a look at wireless repeaters/range extenders in the upstairs rooms – the plug into your plugs and link up with the router http://www.netgear.co.uk/home/products/wireless-range-extenders/WN3000RP.aspx

Keep it netgear – they pay my wages!

weeksy – i was mega interested in one of these before i opted for a Cotic Solaris. Anyway – the BB thing put me off, but before i made the decision, i was email chatting with one of the techies at Salsa and he sent me some great info on how to build up the bike and do the BB. I have forwarded over the info to your email – it may be some use.

Good luck with the build

Had the transmission, finishing kit and brakes, but the rest was sourced second hand, except the frame.

Frame inc headset – 560
Forks – 170 off here
Wheels – actually just got some Hope/stans off here for 200 (pic shows by old set)
Tyres – 30 quid for both, again off here

So I recon the build in total is about 1200 quid.

I already had the oven glove and the Disney Princess cup is not mine before there are any witty comments 😀

i really umm’ed and arr’ed about the Reverb, but £175 sheets from Merlin was too good to turn down. Rode with it at Bracknell last night, and really benefitted from the ability to get the saddle out of the way. Yeah – it weighs a bit more than a std post, but its a nice thing to have. Good luck with the build BTW – and you won’t have any front mech issues with a high or low clamp mech – i ran a high XT before converting to single up the front.

@ YoKaiser – amazing bike!

Does everything that you would want out of a bike – trail centers, local woods etc etc.

I turned mine into a 1 x 10 and dont feel under/over geared at all. nd fitted a dropper post so she is more than happy at Trail Center. Had the thought of swapping out the Reverb for a standard post as and when, but its far too much faff for that, so i just rck the Reverb all the time.

IMO, maybe the one bike for all???

I went for a 19.5 as i’m 6 foot 1.

Kitted it out in nice bits but the Bracknell mud was an additional extra!

@ Foxyrider – i can't wind them down like Talas for example, and to be honest, i can't be arsed to mess about with the forks and change the settings. Its a shame, there are a few XC2 on the forum, but no xc120.

here's a thought – sell me the frame and the 100mm forks 😆

Cheers Foxyrider – just looking at doing a part swap from my full sus to a hard tail for a race series. Looking at putting the 120mm forks on it, so just looking at feasability. This with you saying its better with 100mm has made my mind up. Will have a look at XC120 me thinks. 😆

oh and sorry – you are selling it yeah?

Hiya – very interested. What length forks did you run on it? Any chance of a couple of pics?

Cheers PJM. I knew there would be some comments on 'upgrading to SLX from LX' 🙄 Will give installing the new BB a go..i have the tools to do it – was just a bit nervous about getting spacers right etc, but i guess i could just copy what is in there already???

Cool. Thanks Mister P.